A not-so-friendly act

For more than a month farmers in Punjab were denied payments for the paddy they sold this season due to a Centre-state dispute over food procurement since 2002-03. The Centre has released Rs 20,451 crore in three instalments - but not before embarrassing its ally, SAD, in front of farmers, the traditional Akali supporters. The dispute was over payments for the food grains the Punjab government had bought on behalf of the Centre. The Centre had never got so tough with Punjab on money matters even when a political opponent, the Congress, was in power. Still, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal seldom missed an opportunity to take on the UPA government. The Central "bias" against Punjab was the regular theme of his speeches. His silence now is deafening.

It is possible the BJP is trying to put SAD in place. After all, the SAD-led Punjab government has been less than fair in its treatment of the BJP's vote bank in cities. Disputes arose over taxes in cities. Farmers are given free power, largely at the cost of industry. But if the BJP was playing politics, it was hitting a soft target. Farmers and labourers in mandis suffered the most. Farmers have heavy financial commitments to meet at the time of harvest. There are loan instalments to be cleared, arhtiyas' dues to be settled and marriages to be performed. Any delay in payments for their produce exposes them to huge discomfort. Farmers who had even remotely believed that the BJP would deliver on its poll promise of implementing the MS Swaminathan formula of paying them the input cost plus 50 per cent profit must be wiser by now.

 The Centre-state dispute involving Rs 42,000 crore was once close to resolution when Manpreet Singh Badal as Finance Minister negotiated a debt waiver package with a Central team, but it got scuttled due to an internal power struggle in the Akali Dal. Now a "friendly" government at the Centre has chosen to arm-twist its coalition partner in Punjab to settle a long-pending dispute.